U.S Pat. Nos. 4,502,586, 4,653,160, and 4,493,233 describe harness making or lead making machines of the type in which the wires are conveyed by an indexable conveyer past one or more wire processing machines such as a wire stripper or crimping machines. The conveyers described in the above-identified U.S. patents are in the form of two endless belts of resilient material which are in side by side coplanar relationship. The belts each have a feeding stretch which extends from the loading end of the conveyer to the discharge end of the conveyer, the feeding stretches of the two belts being opposed to each other and resiliently pressed against each other so that the wires will be gripped between the opposed surfaces of the belts.
For several reasons, it is essential that the wires which are loaded onto the conveyer be precisely positioned so that when the conveyer is indexed and the wires are presented to wire processing machines, the individual wires will, in fact, be accurately located or centered with respect to the processing machine. For example, if a wire is presented to a crimping press, it is essential that the end of the wire be located between the crimping die and the crimping anvil so that when the die moves towards the anvil, the wire will be pushed into a terminal on the anvil and the terminal will be crimped onto the wire. Precise location of each wire in the conveyer requires that the wire be precisely located in the conveyer when it is loaded onto the conveyer. The above-identified U.S. patents achieve such precise location by moving the two belts of the conveyer apart at the loading end and the wire is then located between the two belts by a wire delivery system. When the belts are moved back together, the wire will be precisely located between them relative to the conveying path so that the wire will subsequently be precisely located with respect to the wire processing machines.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of a resilient belt type conveyer having improved wire loading and wire unloading features which avoid the necessity of moving the belts apart at the loading end or at the discharge end. Conveyers in accordance with the invention can be used on most, if not all of the known types of lead making and harness making machines which require indexable conveyers.